Unbreakable
by Eleantris
Summary: Alternate ending to S3E2. Alex and Gene talk things over, and somehow find a way back to the way they used to be - the Guv and Bolly: Unbreakable. Pure Galex all the way through! :


_**As those of you who follow me on Tumblr know, I watched (and crazily liveblogged) the second episode of series three a while back, and I got to thinking that if we'd have just had a more Galexy ending, maybe things wouldn't have happened the way they did and everyone would have lived happily ever after! :P So yes, here is my alternate ending to that episode – I started it back when I rewatched the ep, but only got round to finishing it now. Hope you like it, and please review!**_

_**X :D**_

_**Disclaimer – Ashes to Ashes is not mine… *shifty eyes*…**_

_**Unbreakable**_

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><p>"See Keats and people like 'im, they want to t' take us down, Alex. So no matter what he says, don't help him."<p>

Swallowing as his words hit exactly the spot she was sure he had intended, Alex dropped her gaze to the bottom of her glass and felt, rather than heard, the weary sigh escape her lips. Her insides were twisting and there was a sick, churning feeling in the pit of her stomach that she told herself had nothing to do with jealousy. But even as she sighed again and slumped herself over the bar, wine ignored, Alex could recognise all too easily the sensations of bitter envy and hurt pride that were stirring up inside her. The green monster reared its ugly head as the image of Gene bringing his arm up to hold Elaine to him flashed before her eyes, coupled with the second memory of another blonde – younger this time, with the clone of her leather jacket, only black. Jeanette.

With a hurt, sour look on her face, Alex knocked back the last of her wine in one go and jumped up purposefully from her perch at the bar. Turning her back on the rest of CID, ceasing in their dancing now as the last of Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' faded away, she picked up her blazer and pulled it on as she walked out.

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><p>She found Gene leant against the bonnet of the Quattro outside – burning cigarette in his hand, smoke blowing out from between his lips in a long tunnel that got scattered and ruined by the breeze. He didn't look her way as she moved towards him, heels tapping on the tarmac, and didn't acknowledge her even when she stopped and leant back on the bonnet next to him, long legs outstretched.<p>

Silence hung in the night air for a few moments as Gene continued to smoke, not sparing a single glance in her direction. Alex looked down at the ground, her hands clasped loosely in her lap. Eventually, she spoke.

"You're wrong, you know," she said quietly. "I'm not trying to help him. I'm trying to help you."

"Don't need your 'elp, Bolly. Though 'ow you think rifling through old files on Tyler and unearthing the past fer no good reason is helping me, I have no idea." He threw his cigarette end to the ground at that and put it out with the toe of one crocodile skin boot.

Alex sighed, her gaze fixed on the dying embers fading against the black tarmac.

"Keats thinks you killed Sam Tyler, Gene."

"So do you," Gene said, and the bitterness in his voice was poorly disguised by his bluntness.

"No, Gene. I don't." She looked up at him now, studying his expressionless profile with sad eyes. "I have worked side by side with you for two years now, and I know that you're capable of a lot of things… But murder isn't one of them."

Her soft words lingered in the night air for what felt like an age. Alex watched as a black cat silently slipped out from a side alley and trotted quickly across the road in front of them, illuminated by the orange glow from the streetlamps.

"So what are you playing him at, Bolly?"

"His own game, I hope," Alex told him, a little grimly. "Like with you and Supermac, only on a smaller scale, maybe… Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer... Sun Tzu first said that."

Gene actually turned his head to look at her for the first time, eyebrows raised. "Sun who?"

She smiled, and now that he had met her gaze, she felt self-conscious and dropped hers. "Sun Tzu – he was the author of 'On the Art of War'. It's an ancient Chinese military treatise dating back to the second century."

Gene snorted in what could only be interpreted as amusement and shook his head to himself. The tense atmosphere between them was momentarily dispelled. "Only someone with an 'eadful of brains like you would know something as useless as that."

Alex smiled at him, and Gene noticed a light come into her eyes that he hadn't seen since before…since before the accident. She didn't say anything, only carried on looking at him and smiling so that eventually he was forced to ask: "What are you looking at, Bolly?"

Alex's smile widened ever so slightly, her expression touched by a softness that in Gene's eyes only made her look even more beautiful.

"I'm looking at you," she said softly. "At us. I miss us, Gene… I've missed this. I've missed you insulting me but not really meaning it, and me pretending to be annoyed and insulting you back without really meaning it either. I've missed us just talking to each other, me feeling like I can tell you anything, and you acting like that didn't mean something to you… I remember how we used to be before… before the accident… and I miss it…"

She bit her lip to cut off the steady torrent of words before she found herself pouring her entire heart out to him, her gaze darting back down to the ground as all her confidence left her and the beginnings of self-consciousness crept in. She was telling him everything she had been thinking since she woke up again, and now she was scared to see his reaction. Right now, there was nothing but silence.

"I just want… I just want us to be the Guv and Bolly again – with no secrets." She smiled up at him ever so slightly, meeting his gaze with uncertainty. The familiar word fell softly from between her lips. "Unbreakable."

Gene looked down at her, caught off guard by the open, gentle honesty in her eyes. She looked at him, her face so full of forgiveness and… something else he couldn't place, and he was sure no-one had ever looked at him in that way before. But then… He'd never met anyone quite like Alex Drake before.

"Bols…" He stopped - closed his mouth again. Because what was there to say, really?

"Please, Gene." Her eyes widened ever so slightly and seemed to glisten in the darkness as they filled with tears. She looked so broken, her gaze pleading with him. Something deep down inside of her ached for him, ached for his friendship, his company, the warmth of his body close to hers after a long drunken night in Luigi's. They'd never been perfect… But Alex wanted nothing more than for them to go back to how they'd been before the accident. She wasn't asking for perfect. She just wanted… Him.

"I…" He swallowed, and with a frown flickering on her face, Alex thought she detected just a hint of self-contempt in Gene's eyes. When he spoke again, his voice was rough, his words blunt.

"I shot yer. I shot you, Alex."

The words took a while to sink in, but once they had done, Alex's eyes widened further and filled with hurt, her mouth falling open a little way in silent protest. The connection between them broke as Gene looked away, his gaze falling to the floor again. His lips were set in a hard, straight line and she stared at him, an incomprehensible pain tearing through her chest, burning her thudding heart.

"Christ's sakes, Bolly, I put yer in a bloody coma. I did. I shot yer, and you were laid there bleeding on t' the concrete and I couldn't even… Wasn't even brave enough to stay and 'old yer and tell yer that it would all be alright. I ran away." He spat the words out, almost viciously. His face seemed to twist up in self-loathing, and Alex's hand actually raised to reach out for him, as though she hoped to rest it against the side of his face and smooth the torment away.

His voice was defeated, drained. "I wasn't there when yer needed me, Alex."

She stood up away from the Quattro, trying to meet his gaze again. She placed a hand on his arm without hardly knowing it, her eyes wide and imploring – begging for him to listen to her.

"But you're here now, Gene! You came back. I don't care that you ran away, I know why… I know you didn't mean to… I know you could never have meant to shoot me. I would not for a moment think that you could, the same as I could never think you'd killed Sam. Please, Gene…" Swallowing over the iron lump in her throat, she stepped around to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at her. Their eyes met, gazes crashing into each other, and she held him fast.

"Can we please just put all of this behind us?" she asked softly, her hand still resting gently on his arm for fear that he might just melt away from her at any moment. "I can't… I don't have any-…" She let out a long sigh, shaking her head slightly at him. "You're all I have, Gene. I can't do this without you, I don't…" She wet her lips, gaze faltering for a moment before she looked back up at him, and the confession fell from her lips – so quiet it was barely above a whisper.

"I don't want to do this without you."

She moved closer to him, so that they were stood just inches away from each other now, two black silhouettes against the grey darkness. She Alex was drowning in his gaze and he in hers, and in that moment, the same fire burned between them that had always flared up before, back when everything was so much simpler. There was a look of conviction in her eyes that he couldn't help but respond to, and he knew the set of her jawline too well – she was determined.

"I trust you. To the ends of the Earth. And I forgive you, Gene," she told him plainly, and she slid the hand that was on his arm up to rest on his shoulder. "I just need you to forgive yourself."

Her fingertips lightly brushed his neck, caressing just above the line of his shirt collar, and Gene felt electric shocks run across his skin, little livewires erupting in each and every tiny vein. Her lips were moist and looked oh so tempting, her gaze wide and inviting. There was a moment of hesitancy, a brief second as they moved closer and the breath audibly caught in her throat. Both gazes flickered down to the other's lips, and then their eyes closed, gracefully accepting the inevitable without consciously thinking it at all.

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><p>In the days, weeks and months before the accident, Gene had fantasised about this moment. But in his all too frequent daydreams, it had always been him, not her, who initiated their first kiss. And it was always passionate – always in the middle of an argument or out of the blue; he had expected it to be a battle of wills and power over each other, tongues clashing but entwining all at once, lips both caressing and bruising – hands everywhere and anywhere they could reach.<p>

But this was nothing like that.

Her lips touched his gently, hesitantly, as though afraid he might pull back at any moment. And then she kissed him again, her soft lips firmer this time as they caressed his with reverent care. She kissed him gently, as though breathing in the very essence of him as he kissed her back, mouths dancing around each other, taking care not to rush things too soon.

One arm wrapped itself around her waist, the other lightly cupping her cheek, tilting her head towards his. A quiet, breathy moan escaped Alex's lips and was stolen by the wind as his tongue haunted her lower lip, teasing her, igniting a slow-burning fire that was just desperate to flare up and through her veins.

Her release came when Gene pulled her closer, tired of playing gentle. He needed her, had waited years for this moment and when his lips moved against hers with more insistency and he kissed her harder, she didn't complain.

Feeling herself consumed by the taste and smell and sheer proximity of him, Alex succumbed to the wildfire of lust and emotion spreading beneath her skin. She kissed him back, attacking his lips as much as he was attacking hers, tongues exploring. The racing blood in Gene's veins rushed south as Alex let out another long, low moan and a lion-like growl escaped his own lips when he felt her bite down on his lower lip, the fingers in his hair tightening their hold.

He pulled her roughly closer to him, a primal need rising up inside him now to have her body as close as possible to his, her hips slanting against his, her heart beating fast against his chest, her arms wrapped around him as his encircled her. And although their kiss was fuelled with desire, consuming the tenderness of its beginnings, there was still a beauty in their almost violent passion for each other, their need and longing to be as close to each other as they could be after spending so long – too long – denying themselves.

"Promise me," Alex gasped as she found herself backed up against the Quattro, her head spinning as Gene claimed her lips again, devouring her. She was breathing hard, panting as the need for oxygen battled with her need for him. "Promise we can go back… back to how it was before. I-I need you, Gene…"

"I promise, Bols," Gene whispered against her lips, his hands slipping beneath her top to explore the smooth expanse of skin there, his fingertips lightly caressing over the scar he knew would always mark her stomach.

"Unbreakable?" she asked, her gaze, heady with lust and desire, meeting his.

He nodded and held her closer to him to lift her back off from the cold metal of the Quattro. He pressed his forehead to hers and captured her lips again. "Unbreakable."

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><p><em><strong>I hope that was okay. :) I really enjoyed writing this, and I do so wish the end of this episode had happened a little more like this! Thank you for reading, and please do drop me a review to tell me what you think on your way out! :P <strong>_

_**X :D**_


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